Busted pipes are no fun. Fixing busted pipes when it’s cold outside is even less fun.
A quick solution to keeping pipes open is to hang a 100 watt incandescent light bulb in the space where the pipes might freeze.
The heat tapes work better in a crawl space type situation where there’s a large open space the pipes run through.
We don’t have a well yet so our water comes from a tank and the RV water hose coming from the tank always freezes anyway. What I need to do it put some tees in for draining the system like you do with an RV. I can isolate the water heater so it doesn’t drain.
What we really need is a real house instead of the hastily made cabin that was supposed to be temporary, 12 years ago. Just me and the boy now and I have a new job making decent money so I’ll get started on a new house this year.
No building codes out here so I can DIY much of it. I’ll make a place to park the water tank indoors until I can save up the $10k for a 300+ foot well.